The present invention relates generally to cell phone communication, and more particularly, to methods and systems for detecting a cell phone in an area via an airborne vehicle and routing a call from the cell phone to another phone.
Communication to a mobile or cell phone is typically provided by an associated cellular telephone company service provider (“service provider”), such as Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon, or Cingular, using a respective infrastructure of ground-based cell phone base station towers operatively connected to an Mobile Telephone Switching Office (MTSO) associated with the service provider. Each base station tower uses low-power transmitters and operates on a band of frequencies associated with the respective service provider to provide cell phone communication access to a limited area or cell (e.g., a hexagon area of approximately 10 square miles) within the service provider's infrastructure. Each MTSO typically handles all of the phone connections from the respective service provider's base station towers to the land-based public switch telephone network (PSTN).
During a natural disaster, such as a hurricane or tornado, base station towers associated with a service provider are often destroyed or rendered inoperable resulting in an interruption in communication access for cell phones registered with the service provider and located within a cell area associated with an inoperable base station tower. The interruption in cell communication access can severely inhibit search and rescue activities to individuals trapped or in need of medical care within the cell area associated with inoperable base station tower. This problem may also arise when a cell phone user travels outside of the associated service provider's cell coverage infrastructure to a remote area where the user may need emergency assistance. For example, a skier with a cell phone may become trapped via an avalanche in a remote mountain area where the associated service provider does not have a base station tower.
Therefore, a need exists for systems and methods that overcome the problems noted above and others previously experienced for detecting a cell phone in an area with inoperable base station tower and routing a call from the cell phone to another phone.